Ex-Country Club Golf Manager Opens Hawker Stall Selling Eurasian Smoked Pork Devil’s Curry

For those who haven’t heard of it, curry debal, or curry devil, is a dish originating from the Eurasian Kristang clan. Taste-wise, it’s similar to Nonya-style curry, but richer with more aromatics and spices. At his hawker stall, Justin Teh, 48, uses his late Eurasian grandmother Doris Rodger’s home recipe to make this dish. Doris descended from the Kristang clan in Penang, which explains her English surname (since Penang used to be a British settlement). Her roots are a mixture of Dutch, British and Portuguese ethnicities. 

From golf course manager to hawker

The hawker first opened TripleDC in 2021, after quitting his job as a golf course manager at a country club. Back then, his day-to-day job revolved around keeping the grass in tip-top shape at the country club’s golf courses. “When I hit the head of department level, my job was to look after all the ergonomic needs of the grass, and to plan events. We do everything to make sure the grass is as good as it can be for the golfers,” he explains.

He adds: “One day I was in a meeting in a very fancy boardroom, and I was thinking to myself, am I really making the world a better place? And that triggered me to think, what’s the legacy [I’m leaving behind]? If I’m going to do something more meaningful in life to help people in need, running a business comes to mind, because once you have the cash flow and means, you can do more to help people. I thought food was one of the most wholesome businesses I could do — it’s one of the most straightforward, and if you take pride in your food, and people enjoy it, then all the better.” 

So Justin got to work, learning how to cook his late grandma’s devil’s curry recipe — his favourite childhood dish — from his aunts and uncles.

Made $60k loss at Beach Road eatery 

When he first opened TripleDC as a restaurant at Beach Road, Justin had expected his uncommon dish to take off in the local market. But the response wasn’t as good as he had anticipated. “I was sadly mistaken. It’s very hard to break through to the majority of Singaporeans. There’s a number of people who will jump at the chance to try [new food] but they’re not the majority, I would say,” Justin shares.

But why is Eurasian food so hard to find in Singapore? Justin explains: “The number one reason is that it’s very tedious [to make]. I would say it’s even more tedious than Peranakan food to prepare, ’cos the volume of rempah used is even higher. Also, there are just too few Eurasians around here, and many families guard their recipes closely.” 

In total, he incurred an estimated $60,000 loss from running his Beach Road eatery, causing him to close it after two years of operations. Despite the loss, he was determined to try reopening at another location, and eventually settled on his current Amoy Street stall this year. This time, he invested just slightly under $10,000 to set up shop.

His rationale for reopening at a hawker centre? “The idea was to be close to more people of different cultures, and hopefully they will try something different and new. Kristang and Serani food is quite unknown to most Singaporeans, so I was hoping to be closer to the kind of demographic who would try different food,” Justin explains. 

For context, the Kristang and Serani clan are the same — Justin explains they are interchangeable names, and the clan has its own language and cultural practices. As for what characterises their food, he says Kristang dishes are typically very spicy, with ”deep and layered flavours” due to the heavy use of aromatics.

These days, the hawker says business is slightly better than at Beach Road, but still unsustainable given the high $5,000 rental at Amoy Street. 

Though Justin concedes that it’s not ideal for him to be paying so much for rent as he had already incurred losses from his previous eatery, he explains that he couldn’t find another stall that was more suitable for selling curry debal. 

“I zeroed in on this place thinking that there’s high footfall, and we’re close to many PMETs who might be more well-travelled and open to trying new things,” he says. He tells us that he plans to give himself another year or so before deciding on the next step for his business. 

Less-spicy-than-usual curry debal 

If you take a closer look at Justin’s hawker stall, you’ll notice a piece of A4 paper pasted outside reading “No MSG. Less spicy than it looks”. Like its name suggests, traditional devil’s curry is known to be very spicy, but Justin has deliberately toned down the heat levels to make it more palatable for those who can’t handle spice.

He explains: “[My curry is] not as spicy as the traditional level. A lot of these recipes require a certain amount of chillies, and not a lot of people will remove the seeds, which is why the Eurasian community is used to eating a lot of chilli. But I removed the seeds ’cos it doesn’t make sense to sell food to just a small group who can tolerate the heat.” 

The menu 

Justin makes his curry from scratch, and heads down to his stall at 5.30am daily to prepare it fresh. He makes his rempah on weekends, using a mixture of herbs and spices like blue ginger, garlic, lemongrass and turmeric. 

Currently, the hawker only serves two mains: Chicken Curry Kapitan ($7) and a unique Smoked Pork Curry Debal ($9) with imported Danish applewood-smoked pork.

A Eurasian family favourite on special occasions, curry debal (debal means ‘leftover’ in the Kristang language) is usually made with any, well, leftovers from a huge festive feast. The repurposed food was tweaked with lots of spices, the spiciness level rising over the years, till it became the present-day ’devilish’ curry.

Justin says he’s the only one in Singapore to offer smoked pork belly curry debal: "My grandma always used smoked pork for her curry debal, which was unusual,” he says, adding that his grandma Doris often cooked this dish for Christmas parties in the past, adding the more ‘atas’ smoked pork for the festive occasion. 

Smoked Pork Curry Debal, $9 (8 Days Pick!)

Justin’s own version of his grandma’s curry debal is pretty solid — the generously-portioned pork belly here is wonderfully smoky, tempered with creamy curry. Tasty, and unlike the typical Peranakan and Indian-style curries offered in Singapore. Served with an omelette and stir-fried long beans, the chunks of pork were fatty and tender, soaked in gravy that’s very mildly spicy. We’d prefer more heat for this dish, but the punchy sambal on the side makes up for it.

Chicken Curry Kapitan, $7 

The curry kapitan (legend has it that it originated in Penang from a ship’s cook, who was reporting to his captain, or ‘kapitan’ in Malay, what he was cooking) here tastes very similar to Nonya-style curry. However, Justin notes that kapitan curry is not considered a Nyonya-style curry either. ”It’s more like an overlap between Eurasian and Nonya-style curry,” he says.

Fragrant and coconutty with hints of lemongrass, we enjoy this dish very much, but wish there was more gravy. Like the curry debal, the gravy here isn’t very spicy either. The chicken, however, is succulent and fork-tender. Overall satisfyingly rib-sticking curry.

Bottom line

Legit Eurasian fare with quality ingredients. If you’re craving curry rice and happen to be in the area, we’d recommend trying Justin’s unique pork curry debal for something a tad different from the usual curries. 

Doris’s Devilishly Delicious Curry is at #02-92 Amoy Street Food Centre, 7 Maxwell Rd, S069111. Open Mon - Fri 11am - 3pm. Tel: 8879 9137. More info via Instagram. 

Photos: Kelvin Chia

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